600 cases and 139 deaths are suspected to be caused by Ebola

The World Health Organization said on Wednesday that there are 600 suspected cases of Ebola infection and 139 deaths suspected to be caused by the virus, and it expected these numbers to rise given the length of time the virus spread before its outbreak was discovered in Congo and Uganda.

The Organization’s Director-General, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, stated that the organization’s emergency committee met yesterday, Tuesday, in Geneva, and confirmed that the outbreak of the rare Bundibugyo strain of the virus represents a public health emergency of international concern, but it does not represent an epidemiological emergency.

He added, “The World Health Organization estimates that the risk of the epidemic is high at the local and regional levels, and low at the global level.”

Ghebreyesus declared a state of emergency at the weekend, which is the first time that the Director-General of the organization has taken this step without consulting experts due to what he said was the seriousness of the situation.

“Our top priority is to identify all current chains of transmission… which will enable us to accurately determine the extent of the outbreak, and thus provide the necessary care,” said Chikwe Ekweazu, Executive Director of the Health Emergencies Program at the World Health Organization.

This outbreak has raised concerns among experts, given the possibility of it spreading for weeks without detection in a densely populated area suffering from the scourge of widespread armed violence.

The outbreak of the Zaire strain of the Ebola virus in the same region between 2018 and 2020 was the second most fatal outbreak of the virus ever, killing about 2,300 people.

The World Health Organization says that the Bundibugyo strain is spread through direct contact with bodily fluids from people or animals infected with the virus, and that the average death rate associated with the virus is about 40 percent.

The organization stated that 51 cases of infection had been confirmed in Ituri and North Kivu provinces in the northern Democratic Republic of the Congo. Uganda also informed the organization of two confirmed cases of infection in the capital, Kampala.

Experts from the World Health Organization said they suspect that the outbreak appears to have begun two months ago, as the first death suspected of being linked to the virus was reported on April 20, but investigations are still ongoing.